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Koala
|name = Koala |kana = コアラ |rōmaji = Koara |japanese voice = Kenyuu Horiuchi |english voice = Kaiji Tang |manga debut = Chapter 189 |anime debut = Episode 79 (2011) |gender = Male |eyes = Brown (2011) |hair = Purplish Pink (2011) |status = Alive |affiliation = Kite |previous affiliation = Chimera Ant Queen Meleoron's Squadron |occupation = Kite's Companion |previous occupation = Hitman (When human) Chimera Ant Soldier |image gallery = yes}} Koala (コアラ, Koara) is a Chimera Ant and former Soldier in Meleoron's Squadron,Hunter × Hunter - Volume 19, Chapter 189 and is now a companion for Kite for the rest of his life as a penitence for his sins.Hunter × Hunter - Volume 32, Chapter 337 Appearance Koala looks like a small bipedal koala with pink fur, fluffy round ears, a big round nose, a fat chin and four black spots on his forehead that vaguely resemble an insect. He has small, round eyes with light brown sclera, irises, and pupils. He wears a black tuxedo over a white shirt, a dark tie and a pair of striped, clown-like shoes. Personality Koala is stoic, keeping a straight face at nearly all times, but he is actually capable of feeling deep emotions and deciphering them with only apparent detachment. By his own admission, he used to enjoy bossing others around. He has extraordinary strength of mind, which allowed him to retain the memories from his former existence. Before dying, Koala had a complete disregard for human life and made a living as an assassin. He was an atheist philosophically concerned with the microscopic world. In his confession to Kite, he admitted that he worked as a hitman because it was an easy job and that he always made the easiest choice, even as a Chimera Ant. Following his rebirth, he developed a belief in reincarnation, although in a lay, nearly scientific sense. This caused him to discover that every life has value. Apparently retaining a significant part of his memories, he chose to kill all the humans he met swiftly. Although his fellow squadron soldiers thought him ruthless, he actually did it to spare the victims the pain and tortures they would have suffered at the hands of the other Ants. However, out of fear for his own life, he never tried to defend a human, which has caused him to feel a strong sense of guilt towards Kite since he is the one that murdered a girl that greatly looks like him. He was ready to give up his life for it, but accepted to serve the reborn Hunter instead. Background Not much is known about Koala outside of the fact that during his previous life he was a hitman. This prompted him to continue his cycle of existence when he was reincarnated into a Chimera Ant, typically shooting people to death. Plot Chimera Ant arc Koala confronts a large man wielding a tree trunk and argues with him, who is a lesser creature. The large man thinks Koala is, but he begs a differ, which agitates the large man causing him to smash the tree trunk into Koala's head. Koala pays no mind to the injury he sustained in the attack and lectures the large man a bit and kills him with a water bullet. Hoping the large man is resurrected with a better attitude, Meleoron appears before Koala and scolds him for killing the large man. Koala, however, argues all he has to do is present meat to the Chimera Ant Queen to keep her satisfied. Meleoron perplexed by Koala's statement, argues that just yesterday he killed a crying red-haired little girl, who tried to flee from him. And goes onto say that he knows a way to capture the human prey more easily without any conflict, but if he enjoys killing so much he can have him transferred into the feeding squad and walks off. Koala unamused by Meleoron's lecture calls him hopeless. Koala is shown to be one of the small handfuls of Chimera Ants to not leave the nest after the King was born.Hunter × Hunter - Volume 21, Chapter 215 13th Hunter Chairman Election arc Sometime after the events of the Chimera Ant crisis, Koala finds Kite and tells them about a red-haired girl he killed who resembled him. He shot her in the back of the head as Chimera Ants chased after her, to spare her the torture she would suffer at their hands. Before becoming a Chimera Ant himself he used to be a hitman, and he found himself reliving the cycle of violence after his rebirth. Believing that her soul would be trapped in the same cycle if she died in pain, he shot her hoping to free her. He states that only a few of the hundreds of people eaten by the Chimera Ant Queen retained their memories, so most of their souls might have escaped without his help. Since Kite looks nearly identical to that girl, he believes that her soul might have been freed. He adds that no Chimera Ant claimed to have been killed by him, so the souls of all his victims probably broke free from the cycle. Before his rebirth, he did not believe in the soul and viewed consciousness as a mere glitch of a complex brain that would disappear forever after death. However, having retained his memories and the same despised patterns as when he was human, Koala is forced to recognize that he is still himself even after dying. He likens the soul to DNA, as both are extremely small but carrying a tremendous amount of information, and to the infinitesimally small things that make up the whole universe. Acknowledging that the size of a thing does not affect its power, he reckons that the soul must possess a tremendous amount of it to be able to reincarnate. He wonders if he was brought back to repeat the cycle, even as he wishes to break out of it, because his actions did not match his real desire: he should have shot the grunts chasing the girl, not her, so as to protect himself. He admits to Kite that even his confession is yet another pitiful attempt to save his own soul. Koala prepares to leave but is stopped by Kite who orders him to stay by his side forever as penance. She also orders him to apologize to her every day and threatens to kill him if he loses his resolve that he displayed when talking with her. Spin intervenes in Kite and Koala's conversation to inform Kite that she has a guest. As Gon enters the room, Koala leaves the two to discuss their own matters. Right after Gon leaves the mansion, Koala apologizes to Kite. His reason why was for trying to run away again and no matter how painful it is, he'll repent for his sins for as long as he lives so he'll have died with no regrets. Koala along with Kite, Gon, and the Amateur Hunters watch a flock of Small-billed Swans fly into the sky.Hunter × Hunter - Volume 32, Chapter 339 Equipment Gourd: Koala is always seen carrying a gourd apparently carved out of some tropical fruit. It contains water or some clear liquor that he can either drink or shoot with great force. Abilities & Powers As a Chimera Ant, Koala is stronger than normal humans, and probably even more powerful than average soldier Ants. He has an exceptionally strong will since he retained most of the memories from his former life if not all of them. This probably means he still has the experience and techniques he gathered as a hitman. His exoskeleton is so durable that he only got scratched after being clubbed with a tree trunk, whereas the log broke in half. On that occasion, he also demonstrated a good sense of balance and a certain degree of strength in his legs, since he did not even stagger after the hit. He detected Meleoron when the latter was invisible, showing he is very perceptive. Koala's fighting style revolves around his ability to spit fluids (water or liquor, it is unclear, but likely irrelevant) in a bullet-like fashion. The fluid is very compressed, as proven by the fact that an abundant quantity of it pours out of the nose, mouth, and eyes of the target if they are hit in the head. He is very accurate, seemingly always hitting precisely where he intends to. Koala uses a gourd in order to always have a supply of liquid on hand. Battles Quotes * (Repeated line) "Hopeless." * (To Kite) "She was a redhead, just like you. And I gunned her down." * (To Kite) "Before all this, my job was to snuff people. I'd get my orders and pull the trigger. The rest of the time I'd yell a lot. It was a job anybody could do. Even when I was reborn, it was the same thing. A stupid cycle. I wanted to let her out of it." * (To Kite) "Before this, I didn't believe in the soul. We're no better than fleas and flies. Life and death, that's all there is. The ego is a glitch, a side effect of a complex brain. You die and it's over. Dust to dust. Get scattered to the wind." * (To Kite) "I shouldn't have shot the girl, but the killers chasing her!! I was the biggest scumbag of all. I avoided atoning for my sins because it seemed too painful. I 'prayed' for her? Bah. What a selfish jerk. I was just desperate not to get hurt." * (To Kite) "I shot her to protect '''myself'. And now I'm making my confession to you because you look like her, and trying to save my own dirty soul again."'' * (To Kite) "I tried to run away. To take the easy way out. I'll live through the suffering. When I die, I want to feel like I did my best." Trivia * The character's name was never given in the manga and the 2011 anime adaptation just name him in the credits. ** He is referred to as コアラ型Hunter × Hunter - Episode 79 (2011) (Koara-gata,Nippon TV - HUNTER×HUNTER - Chimera Ant: characters page literally "Koala type"). *** In the credits for the English dub: "Koala". Intertextuality and References * As a human, only his silhouette was seen in the manga. However, the black suit matched with an equally black fedora and the fact he is shown wielding one gun may imply his appearance was inspired by Reborn's true form from the ''Katekyō Hitman Reborn!'' franchise. The similarity is furthered by the fact that Koala was, in fact, "reborn". Moreover, much like the Arcobaleno, he went from an adult form to a much smaller one. Miscellaneous * Koala shares his Japanese voice actor, Kenyu Horiuchi, with Ikalgo and Gotoh in the 2011 anime adaptation. Translations around the World References Navigation es:Koala Category:Media-named Characters Category:Male characters Category:Chimera Ants Category:Reformed Antagonists Category:Magical beast